OA got an informative lesson on what the victim of a crime goes through.

After being mugged initially, it affected his performance throughout FBI Season 5 Episode 4.

Like many victims, OA wanted to put the mugging behind him and move on, thinking that would make the experience disappear.

Shouldn't there be some policy that an agent who is a victim of a crime should have to report that to this supervisor? You know Isobel didn't like finding out about what happened to OA second-hand.

And mentioning it to his partner, even his temporary partner, should also be a given. But OA blew it off, attempting to bury himself in his work. But his tumultuous state of mind kept leaking through.

Despite OA pretending that it was no big deal, the trauma continued to dog him while he attempted just to do his job.

OA, usually more stoic, reacted emotionally throughout the case, with little things setting him off -- a suspect who tried to run, a cop who cracked a bad joke.

Nina could tell something was off about OA. But she gave him his space and kept saving him from his over-reactions.

Also, Isobel probably should have benched him. But that wasn't going to happen with a killer/rapist who was accelerating on the loose. She had no choice but to hope that OA would keep it together.

Which he managed to do, for the most part. Sure, he violated the cardinal rule, promising Marta's mother they would find her killer. But most of the people that he snapped at deserved what they got.

Isobel and Detective Chavez should get credit for their roles in solving the case.

Isobel had the brilliant idea of looking for lesser but related crimes committed by the same suspect while honing his craft.

Without taking that tack, they never would have found Citra, whose actions helped them to bust the case wide open.

OA couldn't help being empathetic toward Citra. She was another Muslim victim who was trying to put what happened behind her.

At first, she appeared to be couching her account so she wouldn't offend or concern her strict parents. Nina knew her story didn't ring true, but OA cut off the questioning because he understood what she was going through.

But it turned out Citra was suppressing memories, again just like OA.

Nina realized that OA was behaving erratically, but she didn't have the context to understand why that was.

Chavez deserved credit for not allowing OA to run away and hide in his work. His suspects were also accelerating, so he couldn't let any witnesses, regardless of how reluctant they were, not to participate in his investigation.

Also, he forced OA to confront what he'd gone through, to admit that he knew more about the muggers than he realized, and to play his part in their eventual capture.

Chavez's unusual presence made OA's teammates realize that something was going on with him and likely led to his long-overdue confession to Nina, which enabled her to put the pieces together regarding his behavior that day.

Nina isn't Maggie. But she stood by him and helped him to process his feelings, something he's proven to be ill-equipped to do in the past.

Chavez's suggestion of a memory technique also led to a breakthrough in the case, as OA used that technique to get Citra to recall she had a shirt with the suspect's blood on it buried in a hamper.

And what a shocker! The DNA led to a suspicious person that we'd already met in passing.

He was that jerk at the surplus store who refused to give up the name of the person who bought the handcuffs used on a victim. Now we knew why he was being so stubborn about it.

Why he didn't beat feet after he was linked to the cuffs is inexplicable. He must have known that would immediately lead to his first victim. Then again, his selling her the cuffs could have been seen as just coincidental.

No, instead, Jason, the clerk, left work early with his next victim and attacked her within earshot of the store.

Then, although the FBI obviously knew who he was, he attempted to escape. Oh, well, no one claimed he was a criminal genius.

Afterward, OA blamed Citra for not recalling the bloody shirt sooner. But he was blaming himself for trying to escape his responsibility, and another victim getting shot as a result.

Fortunately, Nina was there to get him to understand that everyone needs time to process such an experience. That was her way of letting him know she understood why he had been acting so out of character that day.

OA's guilt led him to the hospital to check in on the man who the muggers shot while he dragged his feet.

Chavez was good enough to let him know that the muggers had been caught and to stop him from beating himself up.

Getting mugged was a valuable learning experience for OA.

Next time, he'll remember how victims of crime struggle when recalling such a traumatic event.

To revisit OA's growth as an agent, watch FBI online.

How do you like OA having a more prominent role this season?

Did he learn from this experience?

Is there space for Nina after Maggie returns?

Comment below.

Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on X.